An Outside View: What’s My Line?

Back in the 1950’s and 60’s, one of the most popular television shows was What’s My Line? If you admit remembering it, you are really telling your age. For you younger readers and for those who claim they are too young to remember, a contestant would come on the show and a panel of celebrities would attempt to guess the person’s occupation. Stump the panel and you could win some nice prizes. It was quite tame compared to today’s game shows but was a pioneer of sorts in the days of early television. What I want to do is play our own little version of What’s My Line? We’ll modify the rules a little bit but the intent is the same. I will name someone well known to you and all you have to do is tell me his or her occupation. Simple enough? Okay, let’s get started. Bobby Knight? “Basketball coach,” you say. Without editorializing about his antics off and on the court, I will just say that you are right and we will move on. Pat Summitt? “Basketball coach,” you say almost embarrassed at how easy this game is. Just so happens that you are right again. “Buzz Peterson? “Basketball coach,” you say beginning to display a bit of boredom. I admit these haven’t been very challenging. Play along and let’s do one more and then we will move on. Randy Moore? “Basketball coach,” you mutter impatiently. “What’s the deal?” Okay, no more questions. Let’s see. Well, you got three out of four which isn’t bad. “What?” you protest. ‘Moore is the coach of the Seymour Eagles boys basketball team,” you argue. Actually, he coaches the boys and girls but what does that have to do with anything? I asked you for his occupation. Have you forgotten the name of the game? It’s What’s My Line? The correct answer is high school computer science and social studies teacher. “Trick question,” you complain. No, you’re just like so many others who lose sight of the fact that our high school and middle school coaches are all educators first and coaches second. It just isn’t an accident that all coaches have to be certified teachers in the school system before they will be allowed to coach. This is something that Principal Bruce Wilson fully understands. “Our first priority is the classroom,” he says without hesitation. Head football coach and athletic director Gary Householder echoes that. “Their primary responsibility is between 8:00 and 3:00,” he says. “Mr. Wilson tells us all we are teachers first and coaches second.” Our coaches are paid to teach. You can argue that they aren’t paid enough and I would agree. No public employees are paid enough but that is as far as I want to go with that. I will leave that to the editorial pages. Now, back to our topic at hand. As teachers, they receive a modest supplement to coach. Depending upon the sport and whether you are a head coach or an assistant, you can expect to earn between $2,600 and $4,800 per year as compensation for coaching. On the other hand, a new teacher in Sevier County can expect to earn $26,990 for teaching. It is clear where the priority lies. All of our coaches went to college and got certified we assume because they wanted to help educate our children. Many didn’t get into coaching right away but moved into coaching positions later after they had been teaching for awhile. Some people do not realize how complicated it can be to hire a coach. When Mr. Wilson is faced with the challenge of hiring a new coach, he can’t simply go out and find the best coach that might be available. He must find a teacher who is certified in a subject for which he needs a teacher. For example, John Doe may be the greatest high school coach in the country and he may really want to come to Seymour (and who wouldn’t?). However, if he is certified only in History and there are no openings for a History teacher, Wilson cannot offer him the job. You see, he has to hire a teacher who also wants to coach. The Seymour community can be proud of the coaches who work with our young people to improve their athletic skills. However, we should be even more proud of what they do in the classroom to develop their minds. They will always be educators first.